Book Groups

The Archeology Book Group (AIA) meets once a month on a Thursday afternoon.   AIA is an independent group interested in reading about historic events, archeologically interesting facts and finds.  Book titles are determined by group members.  Copies of titles must be obtained by each member.    New members are welcome, please contact Myrna at mwsilville@gmail.com    Thank You.

Date: March 21, 2019

Title: The Darkening Age: The Christian Destruction of the Classical World  

by, Catherine Nixey

Using the mutilation of faces, arms and genitals on the Parthenon’s decoration as one of her many, thunderingly memorable case studies, Nixey makes the fundamental point that while we lionize Christian culture for preserving works of learning, sponsoring exquisite art and adhering to an ethos of “love thy neighbor,” the early church was in fact a master of anti-intellectualism, iconoclasm and mortal prejudice. This is a searingly passionate book. Nixey is transparent about the particularity of her motivation. The daughter of an ex-nun and an ex-monk, she spent her childhood filled with respect for the wonders of post pagan Christian culture.

Date: April 25, 2019 * Note:  Book Group meeting in Local History Room and 1 week later due to holidays

Title: The Dinosaur Artist: Obsession, Betrayal, and the Quest for Earth's Ultimate Trophy 

by, Paige Williams  

In 2013, the United States literally arrested the skeleton of a giant apex predator dinosaur slumbering in a warehouse in Queens. But understanding how this came to be first requires a panoptic survey of everything from the world of the Late Cretaceous period to the 1990s rise of right-wing politics in Mongolia. This is the dizzying task that Paige Williams, a staff writer for The New Yorker, has set for herself in “The Dinosaur Artist: Obsession, Betrayal and the Quest for Earth’s Ultimate Trophy.” What began for her as the tale of an unusual court case involving a rogue fossil hunter unspools in this book into a wide-ranging examination of the ways that commercialism, ambition, politics and science collide. [New York Times - Peter Brannen 10/18]